Ranger school gift?

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Hey y'all! It's been a few weeks since I've popped in here. Hope everyone's been doing well

I'm going to try to keep my usual rambling to a minimum, lol. I've been thinking about getting DB a watch for a while. He didn't wear one when we met and lost the one he wore over his deployment, but he's about to go to ranger school. I'm thinking now might be a good time to get him one because it'll be useful during ranger school (I've noticed he likes the more practical/useful gifts I've given him). I found a model in my price range that seems tough enough to withstand whatever they're going to be doing. I was planning on giving it to him this weekend, along with three letters that he can read at the end of each phase.

But after some overthinking/input from my friends, I'm wondering if it'll be better to give it to him as a ranger school graduation gift. A watch definitely feels more like a graduation gift than a going away present, and it still will retain some of the practicality that makes it a good pre-ranger present. But I also feel like I can definitely find something nice to give him after he graduates that he can use more in his every day life. Like, part of the appeal of a watch as a pre-ranger gift is that it's something he can actually take with him and use, whereas when he graduates I can get him something he likes that he can keep in his room, wear with his civvies, etc. The other thought I had was to buy him a cheapo watch for the going away gift and upgrade him to the nice watch as a grad gift. The one I wear is $10 and is recommended a lot as a watch for basic, but I'm worried it won't make it through ranger school so if I'm going to gift him a watch, it might as well be a sturdier one?

This is such a stupid problem to have lol, I just wanted input from other milsos who have a better idea of what Army schools/trainings entail. I definitely don't have to give him anything now, I just thought it'd be nice to. Any thoughts are appreciated!

I'd do it for graduation. I know it's not pleasant to think about, but I believe the graduation rates are fairly low. If the watch is tied to starting school, will it have a negative association if he doesn't finish? That would be one of my concerns, along with it getting pretty beat up if he's wearing it during training.

I will agree with villanelle....My husband went through a really tough program and while its not common to see people fail or get kicked out it does happen....we saw people in the class behind him get kicked out. So I would wait till the end.

Save the gift until he graduates. This sounds like a school with a fairly high fail rate, so there’s a possibility he either doesn’t make it or takes longer than he thought. The gift works better as a reward for something already achieved.

In any case, any gift you give him to take on course with him is likely to have the utter shit kicked out of it!